FP2 Won't turn on or charge - See first post for troubleshooting

Hi, I’ve read through a few of the other topics here & I’m not sure if my issue is the same or not…have had recurring problems in the past with crashes (requires taking battery out for >10secs to reset), which recently seems to have sorted itself out (due to OS update perhaps?), but today it didn’t seem to charge last night (despite being plugged in to same charger as ever) and now using a different charger, shows the blue charging screen briefly but doesn’t seem to be charging up and won’t turn on at all after taking the battery out a few times over - does anyone have any ideas?? Have tried inserting a piece of card in case of loose battery like someone suggested, but that doesn’t seem to help…I’d like to be able to use my phone again today!! :frowning:
Thanks all

Similar thing happend to me today. Last night my battery was going down and i put it on charger before i got to bed. When i woke up the phone was dead, i thought maybe it didnt charge right. Sometimes it flickers for a while before going into chrage. The thing is that during the hole day ive tried to charge the phone, Using 4 wired cable 5v 1 a. The red light flickers and then stops. sometimes it flickers then stop on steady red light and then turn black. From time to time the phone tries to boot but only the FAIRPHONE logo appears and seconds later the phone dies. If i reconnect the charger the image of phone charging appears, but it doesnt seems to charge the battery. The battery is getting alittle bit warm after a while, so some kind of power should go into the battery i guess. Ive tried to dissassemble the module, looked for dirt, reset battery and so on nothing works. I have now ordered a new battery, the buttom module is out of stock otherwise i would have bought that aswell. I just want a bloody phone that works. Frustrated*

I moved your post here and closed the other topic to avoid duplicates (the other one had slipped through so far). Please check out the first post for some pointers.

For me, it was not the battery the problem but something inside the phone.As it was still under warranty I send it back for repair but they prefered to send me a brand new phone back :slight_smile: It only took ages, but it finally arrived and this one seems to work perfectly well so far! I hope for you that it is only a battery problem or you’ll have to send it back for repair as well I am afraid…
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Got my new battery today. Couldnt charge it, and after 30 min of use it is now dead. I have been using 5 different fabricates of 4 wired Cable 5v 1A. Nothing works. I have been using my phone for 10 months without any bigger hickups, some difficulties to charge with a few chargers but this is unbeliveable. I have no idea what to do now, when they cant even have spare parts in stock…

If two batteries refuse to charge, then this sounds like a defective bottom module (as was the case here), which is something that Fairphone support will need to address.
I’m not sure what the status of getting new spares in stock is (spares ran out when they stopped production to fix some quality control issues), nor do I know whether they have separate stock for warranty issues (which your case might be). If Fairphone give you an update, it’d be good to know!

A temporary solution could be to charge the batteries in a universal external battery charger (example - though check polarity), if the phone otherwise worked fine for the 30 mins of use you got out of the new battery (sometimes defective bottom modules cause other issues that make this workaround useless).

Thank u for the tip on external charger. Gonna order it even if a broken buttom module will make it useless. I will prob have good use of such a device in the future, now when i have 2 batteries. I have posted my problems to the support page.

So, in the end i just bought a new battery, with which all worked fine again. I also bought new charger and cables to be sure.
Except for the battery lifetime of the new battery being someting between 12 and 13 hours!
Suspecting there is some background process consuming too muhc battery I did a comlete reboot, after that all worked fine again and I did only install very few apps, battery time was at least 24 hours.mailchim
But this morning the same thing happened again: phone dead and it does not charge any more…
So frustrating!

The screen of my Fairphone 2 has been black for more than 60 hours. The battery was not empty when it happened. I tried to reboot it, switch into reset mode (power and volume up for at least ten seconds) - nothing helped. I also took the battery out, first time only to take it out and straight back in and after I read a few articles in the forum a left it out for half an hour and longer. I also tried to charge it. The led light was not on (not immediately and not after waiting half an hour and longer). I read again in the forum and then tried three different chargers - nothing worked.
I also completed the new update a few days ago.
I would appreciate any tips and help!

Hi everyone,

In the last 3 days, my Fairphone started to charge extremelly slowly or sometimes just won’t charge. It also alternates the charging screen with the black and white fairphone screen and sometimes just stays black for hours although I am charging it and see a flashing red light. Also sometimes, even when charging, nothing happens: it’s off and there isn’t even a red light.

I tried using several chargers with perfectly works with other phones.

This is such an issue: the phone ends up working perhaps 2hours per day! Can you please help me?

Best,

Marine

It seems that your Micro-USB port is broken. Ask support for a new bottom module.

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Hi all,

Am just about to write to support for the same problems most of you mentioned in this thread (reboot loop due to dodgy connection). After a week of diagnostics and trying out pretty much every fix in the forum, I think it’s a case of a faulty bottom module/broken micro USB port - every other fix only works temporarily.

I’ve tried:

  • Leaving the battery and phone for a couple of days
  • Charging with 3 different cables in a wall socket, USB port and portable charger
  • Wedging the battery firmly in place using a piece of cardboard
  • Opening up the screen, cleaning the connections and checking the screws
  • Buying and using a new FP2 battery
  • “Jump starting” the battery whilst plugged in

My phone will work for short periods, but I can’t trust that my phone’s charge will last more than 3 hours (even with the new battery), and then I can’t trust that I’ll find a way to be able to charge it again, which kind of defeats the object of a phone.

Will let you know what support say.

Jenny

I experiment the same issue.
It seems that the Micro-USB port is broken.

I’ve introduced a ticket to the support, but no answer, despite my phone is still under warranty.
This is the second time I have a major issue with my FP2, and I’m very disappointed to see that “fair” does not go with"reliable".

EM

An update on my issue. I emailed support and left it a week, with no reply. I phoned support to check on the status of my support request; they emailed back straight away. We exchanged some emails and Fairphone support agreed that it was an issue with the micro-USB port.

The solution was a replacement Bottom Module, the idea was to send it out to me and I would fix the phone myself, however there is no stock at the moment. Here is the reply:

Unfortunately, we can’t replace this specific module at the moment. The reason for this is that we are currently optimizing our production process. We are gradually introducing some changes to improve production quality, based on the teachings of the past half year of Fairphone 2-production. For that purpose, we temporarily stopped the assembly lines. We also engaged with suppliers to adjust their processes and materials.

Currently we are waiting until the new modules are shipped from China and back in stock again in our warehouse.

We will proceed with the replacement as soon as this happens.

I bought my Fairphone 2 through the Phone Coop, so I explained the situation, forwarded the email, and got a replacement Fairphone within the week.

Hi guys,

I was one year in Japan and always used the same charger (not always the same cable) and it worked somehow.
Now when I came back to Germany my FP2 suddenly won’t charge.
Today when I woke up, I couldnt turn the phone on. When it was connected to the charger, the red LED started blinking. I did what was written in this topic (Tip: FP2 battery not charging, blinking red led) but my phone still doesn’t turn on.

I’ve got the feeling, that it’s a problem of the phone and not the charger (because I used the same charger for over a year and there wasn’t a problem) but I’m not a pro at these things. Please help, need my phone working…

Hi everybody, I reactivate this topic because apparently I have the same issue since yesterday. How did you manage it ? Anyone finally received an answer? My guess is the microphone/usb module but it is currently out of stock, anyone have changed it ?

thanks for your answers

Hello,

I had this sudden charging problem myself. My FP2 is 3 months old and is no longer capable of charging a battery. I know it is a problem with the USB port because I ordered a brand new battery from the online shop and it behaves exactly as the “old” one. Unfortunately, bottom module is still out of stock on the online store.
I’m in contact with the support desk to understand what to do… Meanwhile, I’ll get an external battery charger. With two batteries I should go along well :slight_smile:

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Problem went back to normal few days after for me…still waiting for the battery module to be available in case of…

I experienced a similar problem. My fairphone stopped charging 4 weeks ago. After 3 weeks support send me a new batterie, but it did not help. The phone still does not charge. So right now I am in my 4th week without phone and I am starting to be really annoyed. I told support several times that this is my only phone, business and private, and that I need it working quickly. But they seem to have all the time in the world. The last response was 5 days ago. I was told to sign up at the return portal to have my phone sent in. So I did that and still nothing. In the procedure I was told to make a backup, because they will wipe everything. I was asking how I am supposed to do that if the phone is not working at all? No answer…
This is my first very bad experience with the phone. Of course there are small issues like cracked cases, a bad camera,… but at least the phone was working. I can live with this, it is normal for the small production number. And so far the support was very helpful and rather quick. The problem is, now that I have a SERIOUS issue and can not use the phone at all, I feel left alone. 4 weeks without a phone and responses once per week is not ok in my opinion.
All I want is a new bottom module to test if it is broken, since this seems to be the case for other users.
Now I have bought a cheap external charger to be at least able to make the backup. A useless piece of electronics I buy for a one-time use. I thought that this company wanted to avoid exactly this! But maybe I have to use it for a longer time if I have to continue waiting for a normal guarantee repair…

My FP2 has the same problem as detailed here. It won’t charge using cables that worked previously.

I sent mine back the Netherlands to be repaired, I got it back but it is still broken.

I SENT IT BACK TO BE REPAIRED BUT IT IS STILL BROKEN.

I have raised my third support ticket. Hopefully I will hear back.

I tried to go back to using my FP1 but the battery has exploded. That was my second FP1 battery as the first one also exploded.

I have had to buy a non-Fairphone which has negated any social or ecological benefits for getting a Fairphone in the first place.

Does anyone have any advice?